Express Mail Service (EMS) Tajikistan, which is subsidiary of the state-owned Pochtai Tojik (Tajik Post Office), has remained the only courier service agency in Tajikistan’s market after Tajik communications service agency sealed offices of four international logistics companies – Pony Express, TNT Express, United Parcel Service (UPS) and DHL Express – in Dushanbe in early June this year.
On June 7, the Communications Service under the Government of Tajikistan without warning sealed the offices of Pony Express, TNT Express, UPS and DHL Express in Dushanbe.
The official explanation was that under newly adopted legislation, companies providing postal services now need to obtain operating licenses.
Representatives of international courier service companies say they have failed to get operating licenses. Citing Joinibek Dadomatov, an official with the communications service agency, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reported that the Communications Service rejected DHL application for reregistration because it did not provide the full package of documents.
Pochtai Tojik has reportedly got in touch with head offices of DHL, UPS and TNT and proposed them to work through the Tajik operator. International mail service companies have not yet relied to that proposal.
Shodi Rahmonov, the deputy director of Pochtai Tojik, says EMS Tajikistan is capable to compete with DHL, UPS and TNT not only on certain services but also on prices.
Pochtai Tojik representatives say that although they are not as fast as international mail service companies, but their prices are lower.
According to the price lists of international mail service companies posted on their websites, the price for the delivery of one-kilogram parcel to the CIS countries located in World Zone 1 (International World Zones for Delivery) costs 53.00 U.S. dollars, EMZ Tajikistan will deliver one-kilogram parcel for 24.00 U.S. dollars. The price of TNT for one-kilogram parcel for World Zone 3 is, for example, 62.00 U.S. dollars, while the price of EMS Tajikistan for World Zone 3 is 45.00 U.S. dollars. The delivery of one-kilogram parcel to the United States (World Zone 5) through DHL costs 71.00 U.S. dollars, while the delivery of similar parcel to the United States through EMS Tajikistan costs 63.00 U.S. dollars.
Besides, EMS Tajikistan has concluded contracts on rendering courier services under the clearing settlement with more than 30 international and domestic companies, Shodi Rahmonov said.
Meanwhile, these companies have begun cooperating with EMS Tajikistan recently.
“To-date, we have had only two deliveries outside Tajikistan and there is still no cause for criticism,” representatives of Babilon-M said.
Representatives of UNDP Office in Tajikistan say they concluded an agreement with EMS Tajikistan in early September and they have letters and parcels to the United States several times to date. “It is still premature to assess its activities,” they said.
Some other companies that have also concluded an agreement with EMS Tajikistan recently have said practically the same.
Some international organizations active in Tajikistan have refrained from giving comments and just noted that “EMS Tajikistan is even not close to international mail service companies.”
Express mail is an accelerated mail delivery service for which the customer pays a surcharge and receives faster delivery. Mail is delivered not by international company but by domestic postal operators, which are members of the Universal Postal Union. In Tajikistan, Pochtai Tojik offers courier deliveries through its involvement in the international Express Mail Service. Pochtai Tojik has been member of the Universal Postal Union since 1994.
Pochtai Tojik is now offering parcel-tracking services. That was made possible by assistance by technical assistance from the Universal Postal Union, which provided their Tajik colleagues with 24 sets of barcode readers.
Asia-Plus has decided to carry out an experiment and sent a letter from the Tajik northern city of Khujand to the United States through EMS Tajikistan. The delivery cost 440 somoni (equivalent to 50.00 U.S. dollars). Twelve days have passed but the letter has not yet reached the addressee.
“Based on examples of monopolization of practically everything in Tajikistan one can write a book how there ought not to run business,” Tajik economics Amriddin Aliyev. “The ban on operation of international mail service companies in Tajikistan is the next monopolization of business, it is just redistribution of money flows from one hand to the other.”
